Redknapp: Spurs contract cost me England job

Harry Redknapp says he would turn down any future chance to manage England, and blamed a contractual clause at Tottenham Hotspur for not getting the job in 2012.

The current QPR boss had been widely expected to take over from Fabio Capello when the Italian stepped down 14 months ago, especially after he was cleared of two counts of tax evasion.

Redknapp, however, now insists that the fact the FA would have had to pay Tottenham £10 million compensation to prise him away put them off, and ensured they opted for Roy Hodgson instead.

"I wouldn't take it [the England job] now, no, not now, not in the future," Redknapp told the current issue of Twentyfour7 Football magazine.

"That was my time, really, if I was going to get it. Last year, there were a lot of things that went against me surrounding that massive contractual clause. People will always deny that is the reason, the FA couldn't say that and I won't say, but it didn't help me.

"I had such a badly loaded contract it was crazy, in Tottenham's favour. That's what you get for not reading your contract properly. It was a massive amount that someone would have had to pay to get me out of it. If they sacked me it wasn't so massive and that was a bolt out of the blue, a shock, I genuinely never saw it coming.

Redknapp has also stated that it was not Spurs chief executive Daniel Levy who decided not to renew his contract last year.

"I went to a dinner with Daniel [Levy] at Christmas," he said. "He took all the staff out and he made a speech, which isn't Daniel-like. I was embarrassed the way he spoke about me.

"Kevin [Bond] and Joe [Jordan] said 'he doesn't show his feelings but he certainly showed his feelings towards you today, Harry'. There were other directors there, months later I was gone... quite amazing really. Was it Levy who cut the cord? It was other people, the owner of the club [Joe Lewis] that decided."

Redknapp, meanwhile, said he still hopes to work abroad at least once in his career - so long as it is in a warmer climate.

"I'd just enjoy a dream job, maybe one day," he added. "Although time is running out to manage abroad, I'd still like to do that. [I] love watching Spanish football on Sky, or even Russia or Dubai, Abu Dhabi: I'd enjoy them for a holiday, a final retirement job somewhere hot."